Saturday, 12 July 2014

Wise people don't place their trust on delusions. Facts are more reliable than enthusiasm. A forceful illustration that you will not easily forget. The dark side of exuberant optimism. A comfortable life with less work and risk

Delusion is a bad advisor, hardly better than ignorance or convenience.
We all love to hear words of praise and encouragement, although the
truth would serve us much better. If we face reality with courage, we
can spare ourselves countless trouble in the present and costs in the
future.

Wise people don't place their trust on delusionsWishful
thinking has the capability of short-circuiting logic; beliefs that
appeal to vanity should be examined with suspicion. Never accept at face
value any idea pleasing to the ear, since it might contain more sugar
than substance. Such is the case of the exaggerated qualities that many
people attribute to enthusiasm.

Never allow self-reliance to
render you blind to facts. When we start a new venture, ambition
motivates us to move forward and overcome obstacles. Experienced
entrepreneurs know how important it is to pursue opportunities with
conviction, but they are also aware of the dangers of ignoring market
signals.

Growing consumer demand is a key element of success in
any commercial undertaking. If your products or services aim at willing
buyers, your business should do well. In contrast, if your efforts are
met with indifference, you should consider the possibility that your
strategy is mistaken.Facts are more reliable than enthusiasm

Feeling enthusiastic about your venture may
help you close some sales, but cannot sustain a company in the
long-term. If the demand for your products or services does not exist,
your activities will be short-lived.

Markets are constructed in a
such a way that practicality and utility weigh heavier than exuberance.
In the end, people buy only what they like. No amount of cheerful
advertisements can change the fundamental views of consumers.

Every
time that a company has tried to sell what people dislike, it has
resulted in financial losses. Enthusiastic projects that are not aimed
at the public are dead-end propositions. Before you make commitments to
an appealing cause, take a moment to examine if it is sustainable.A forceful
illustration that you will not easily forget

The
life of musician Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741) provides a forceful
illustration of this principle. When Antonio was a child, his father,
Giovanni Vivaldi, taught him to play the violin and took him around to
perform in parties and ceremonies in Venice. Those early contacts with
the commercial market for music encouraged Antonio Vivaldi to develop
his skills further. By the time he was 20 years old, he had become
proficient at several string and wind instruments; from all of them, it
was the violin that he played best.

Shortly after his 25th
birthday, he obtained an appointment as music teacher at a municipal
orphanage in Venice. The job involved teaching children to play the
violin, training them to sing in the orphanage choir, and writing
compositions for religious ceremonies.

Like most employees,
Vivaldi soon realized that his position was not going to make him rich.
Nevertheless, it provided him a stable income, a growing reputation as
composer and performer, and contacts in the commercial music market that
could prove profitable down the road.The dark side of exuberant optimism

Vivaldi's career
exemplifies the dark side of exuberant optimism. While other musicians
aimed at prologuing their appointments, he took disproportionate risks.
His wrong assessment of the market led him to mistakes that wasted the
assets that he had accumulated.

When Vivaldi was in his thirties,
the orphanage promoted him to musical director in recognition of his
excellent performance as teacher and composer. The new position brought
him a higher salary and the possibility to devote more energies to
commercial music ventures.

Without neglecting his job at the
orphanage, Vivaldi branched out in the field of opera, which at that
time constituted the most remunerative genre for composers. Venice
possessed several theatres which competed with each other for audience
and novelty.

Opera was a commercial market in which each new
production could lead to large profits or financial losses. Vivaldi
composed several dozen operas with varying success. A few of his pieces
earned him substantial profits, while others quickly fell into oblivion.
In parallel, his position at the orphanage continued to generate him a
regular income.A comfortable life with less work and risk

If Vivaldi had maintained his strategy, he would
have become wealthy with limited risk. His double role of musical
director and opera entrepreneur enabled him to get the best of both
worlds. By devoting his days to sacred music and his evenings to the
theatre, he benefited from two complementary incomes and enhanced his
reputation. Unfortunately, he became overenthusiastic and abandoned his
well-structured life. Instead of maintaining a balance between his two
occupations, he began to devote more efforts to the commercial market
and seek commissions outside Venice.

During his forties and
fifties, Vivaldi travelled frequently in pursuit of better appointments.
He performed in Mantua, Milan, Rome, Trieste, Prague, and Vienna. His
life became exciting and exhausting, leaving him little time for
teaching. Although the commissions were quite lucrative, the money
seemed to hardly cover expenditures. Travelling was uncomfortable and
expensive. The continuous effort of chasing appointments in distant
cities must have made Vivaldi regret his orderly life in Venice. While
he was in Vienna trying to secure a new commission, he died in 1741,
when he was 64 years old.

Vivaldi's excessive enthusiasm made him
overrate the size and possibilities of the commercial music market. If
he had been more realistic, he would have stayed in Venice and built on
his assets. With less work and less effort, he would have led a very comfortable life.

A wise man does his best to avoid the delusion of
exuberance. Appealing ventures in restricted markets frequently end in
disaster. Never entrust fundamental decisions to your emotions. Growing
consumer demand provides an open door to success, while projects
sustained only by enthusiasm tend to have a dead-end.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

JOHN VESPASIAN is the author of eight books about rational living, including "When Everything Fails, Try This" (2009), "Rationality Is the Way to Happiness" (2009), "The Philosophy of Builders: How to Build a Great Future with the Pieces from Your Past" (2010), "The 10 Principles of Rational Living" (2012), "Rational Living, Rational Working: How to Make Winning Moves When Things Are Falling Apart" (2013), "Consistency: The Key to Permanent Stress Relief" (2014), "On Becoming Unbreakable: How Normal People Become Extraordinarily Self-Confident" (2015), and "Thriving in difficult times: Twelve lessons from Ancient Greece to improve your life today" (2016).